Science

What's left of the General Tso's chicken is on the coffee table. The sauce that eluded my mouth is congealing on my T-shirt. American Idol just started. And Megan, my fiance of three days, is getting ready to swab the inside of my mouth with Q-Tips that are nearly as long as chopsticks. "OK, open that mouth," she says. "Wider." She is a doctor. I do as I'm told. "You know, these look like little Pap-smear brushes," she muses. My mouth snaps closed. "C'mon, open up," she says. I stall. "I love you," I say. "Kiss me." "Let me concentrate," she says.

Directed by Rob Cohen
Written by W.D. Richter
Cast
Josh Lucas-Lt. Ben Gannon
Jessica Biel-Kara Wade
Jamie Foxx-Henry Purcell
Sam Shepard-Capt. George Cummings
Richard Roxburgh-Keith Orbit
Joe Morton-Capt. Dick Marshfield
There are three reasons why filmmakers distort science and technology: 1) to make things look cooler, 2) to make a story "work," and 3) because they have no clue what they´re talking about, and they´ve chosen to ignore the advice (or pleas) of the film´s consultants.

Today the best tool for spotting trouble lurking in the small intestine is the so-called camera pill. Swallow the capsule, which is about the size of a big jellybean, and it slips passively through the gastrointestinal tract, snapping pictures at random along the way.

When nature calls, canines tend to disregard the law, and their owners often fail to deal with the messy aftermath. The situation is particularly dire in Germany, where an estimated three million pounds of “Hundekot” are deposited daily on public property.

Now cutting-edge forensics makes it possible to trace the offending matter back to its source. A citizen commission in Dresden, Germany, has overwhelmingly recommended a scheme in which DNA samples would be collected from all dogs when their annual license came up for renewal.

1OO,OOO,OOO,OOO Estimated number of brain cells in the average adult brain
10 Billion Estimated number of brain cells lost by the average adult over a lifetime
200 Million Estimated number of additional brain cells
lost by an average Alzheimer´s patient
85,OOO Estimated number of brain cells lost
by the average adult each day
2OO Million Miles of neurons formed if every
brain cell in the average adult brain
were arranged end to end

Now that you can play live poker with friends in other cities, trawl for cyberfish, or woo virtual girlfriends—all on your cellphone—calling someone seems almost passé. Mobile gaming is booming. The typical carrier already offers hundreds of downloadable games, and sales are expected to jump from $72 million (last year) to $430 million by 2009. With more than 140 million U.S.

Nobody likes a mess, even a microscopic one. For one thing, it´s tough to clean what you can´t see. That´s why researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are crafting the world´s smallest brooms. The tiny tools are made by growing bristles of superstrong carbon nanotubes on a silicon-carbide fiber just 16 microns in diameter, or about half as thick as a human hair. Scientists create the “handle” by coating one end of the fiber with gold, which inhibits nanotube growth.

In the annals of organized arm wrestling, there had never been a match like this. Ever since 1952, when the first official arm-wrestling competition took place at Gilardi´s Saloon in Petaluma, California, contestants have generally been large men with unusually muscular forearms. But on this Monday afternoon, the TV cameras focus on a slim 17-year-old girl.

Over the past two decades, up to 1 million head of cattle around the world have been infected with mad cow disease. Although fewer than 200 people have died from the human version, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), it´s likely that hundreds of thousands of people have eaten mad-cow-contaminated meat.

A group of near-naked protesters demonstrated in front of Chicago’s flagship Eddie Bauer store on a chilly Saturday afternoon this May.

Here’s something that engineers designing the next generation of
unmanned combat air vehicles may not have considered: A well-placed lightning strike could rewire the plane’s artificially intelligent (AI) brain, transforming the craft into an enemy of the state bent on destroying a major city. Absurd? Maybe. Good plot for a thriller? Evidently: It’s the source of the action in the new movie Stealth, in which an AI-controlled fighter jet turns evil.

From Washington University:
“Fish Genitalia May Balance Attractiveness with Predatory Escape.”

The scientists found that female mosquitofish prefer the well-endowed male. Unfortunately for the males, larger genitalia impede a speedy getaway, making them more likely to be eaten by predators. Sometimes, you just can’t win.

THE GENIUS FACTORY:
The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank
By David Plotz;
Random House;
288 pages;
$24.95

Twenty-five years ago, a retired optometrist named Robert Graham set out to save the planet. As the inventor of unbreakable plastic eyeglass lenses, he certainly had the cash to do great good as a traditional philanthropist, building libraries, say, or endowing scholarships for disadvantaged youth. Instead the Southern California eccentric changed the world in a more un-usual way.

“Now we are getting nearer to true submarines,” PopSci proclaimed in June 1949 of the Navy’s newly revamped U.S.S. TUSK, “not just buttoned-up surface ships that can dunk for a few hours.” The TUSK, first commissioned as a torpedo boat in 1946, reemerged as a deadly spy sub capable of remaining in the deep for weeks, thanks to a snorkel that allowed its diesel engines to run underwater while its upgraded batteries recharged. This technology and a sleek aircraft-inspired design improved the sub’s speed from 10 knots to 15 knots.

Last spring Canada became the first and only country to approve a drug called Sativex to treat the chronic pain endured by most of the 2.5 million people with multiple sclerosis. The announcement caused, ahem, quite a buzz. Sativex is a whole-plant extract of high-grade Cannabis sativa, a.k.a. marijuana, and is the first prescription drug to contain all 60-plus of the plant’s cannabinoids, those compounds that include the psychoactive chemical THC.